An Undeserving World

A young couple embraces the murderer of their entire family, loving him like a brother. The murderer experiences the forgiveness of Christ and becomes their spiritual brother.

Four people walk long into the frigid Romanian night, eluding Communist officials through the deep snow. By sunrise, they arrive at an underground church to distribute the Bibles they had just smuggled into the Ukraine.

Ten people had to die. One of the ten cries, "Please, no, you can't! I don't want to die!"
A guard steps forward. "Let me take his place." The original executee is released; and the guard is executed among the nine others.

Three Chinese pastors are arrested for signing a document that calls for religious freedom for Christians. They are beaten, tortured, and released for good behavior. They continue to travel throughout China ministering to the growing brotherhood of Christians, never sleeping in the same place for more than four nights to elude arrest.

A teenage girl breaks away from her friends to speak to a girl without friends of her own. The former social outcast learns what it is to be loved for the first time-which changes the course of her eternity.

All of these people had one thing in common: They chose to fear God, not man. Hebrews 11:36-38 states, after a long list of those with exemplary faith: "There were those who, under torture, refused to give in and go free, preferring something better: resurrection. Others braved abuse and whips, and, yes, chains and dungeons. We have stories of those who were stoned, sawed in two, murdered in cold blood; stories of vagrants wandering the earth in animal skins, homeless, friendless, powerless—the world didn't deserve them!—making their way as best they could on the cruel edges of the world."

Richard Wurmbrand, a missionary who spent fourteen years in prison for sharing his faith, said, "Whoever has known the spiritual beauty of the underground church cannot be satisfied anymore with the emptiness of some Western churches. . .One out of every five people in the world live in Communist China, where thousands of lay Christians evangelize without "permission." Persecution has always produced a better Christian-a witnessing Christian, a soul-winning Christian. . .these people cannot understand how anyone can be a Christian and not want to win every soul they meet. . .these missions of dedicated, true and fervent believers in the lay church have been purified by the very fires of persecution which the Communists hoped would destroy them. . .In a letter smuggled out secretly, the underground church said, "We don't pray to be better Christians, but that we may be the only kind of Christians God means us to be: Christlike Christians, that is, Christians who bear willingly the cross for God's glory."

"Faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we cannot see." (Heb. 11:1) To be certain of what is invisible requires the sacrifice of what is visible. Though we cannot see the eternal hope that God grants this undeserving world, we know that it is far better than all hope that can be found in our fallen world!

This is the joy of persecution: To trade all that we have for all that is better. The cause of Christ is worth living for and well worth dying for. These revolutionaries gave their lives-both daily and ultimately-to grant an undeserving world the hope of a deserving Father. Their eternal reward is well-deserved.

When we choose to fear God and not men, we face persecution like never before. Yet, In the face of persecution, Christianity spreads like wildfire. Are you willing to give your life to the One who willingly gave His? For we are not worthy of the world, but worthy of a far greater calling: to follow Christ into the unknown. Faith of this caliber deserves the greatest reward:

"For Christ's love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves, but for him who died for them and was raised again."-2 Corinthians 5:14-15

These thoughts were inspired by the book, "Jesus Freaks, Vol II: Stories of Revolutionaries Who Changed Their World: Fearing God, Not Man." It is revolutionary, indeed...